In my last post I talked about how important the resurrection of Christ Jesus is to whether or not Jesus truly is God. Now I will go into why the resurrection is true.
If we were in an American courtroom and there were 500 hundred people who witnessed the defendant in the case commit a crime then the case would be closed. It is just the same with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have documentation that at one time 500 people saw him alive after he had died. See what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in the year 56 AD, just 23 years after Jesus was crucified.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
7then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
8and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
I want to direct your attention to verse 6 where Paul makes the claim that Jesus appeared to over 500 people. Most of who were alive when he wrote this. Let's remember the time period in which this is written. The Jews and Romans were persecuting Christians, even murdering them.
If Paul makes the assertion that 500 people saw Jesus after he was dead and it was not true, then Christianity would not exist today. All of those Jews and Romans that opposed Jesus' resurrection could have done many things to show that Paul was not telling the truth. First they could have easily opened the tomb and shown everyone Jesus' body and Christianity would have died. The Jews and Romans also could have called out Christians on their assertion of 500 witnesses. If the Christians couldn't produce these witnesses then Christianity would have died. They can't all be lying, nor can Paul, if they were lying, many out of those 500 would give up the lie and everyone would realize the Resurrection was false.
Christianity did not die because none of these things happened. Christian in that day had irrefutable evidence that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. 500 witnesses close the case. Jesus was seen after he died by many people. In my next post I will cover the conspiracy theories that try to explain how Jesus was seen after he had died, and show how they are not true.
Parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII
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Paul asserts that 500 people witnessed Jesus after he supposedly died, but no where do we have 500 (or even 200) eyewitness reports of him appearing to these 500 people. No where do we have evidence that Paul isn't a liar.
Paul's word is little more than hearsay.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
Then why didn't the Romans or Jews just ask where these witnesses were. He said they were still alive.
I'll assume you're asking me. Could it be that they didn't believe Paul because he had a history of lying? Could it be that they didn't care? There are any number of reasons why people wouldn't ask.
The fact remains, there are not hundreds of accounts of this event. There may be 10, maybe 15, but that does not mean that 500 people saw him alive after he supposedly died. You haven't even proved to me that it was Jesus, in fact, that was crucified and not just some random person who looked like Jesus.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
(1) If we were in a courtroom and 500 people attested to seeing a person arise from the dead then I doubt that the case would be closed. Rising from the dead is not something that happens every day. In fact, I'll bet at one time you could have gotten 500 people to testify that they had seen Elvis alive after he was supposed to be dead.
(2) Exactly who were these 500 people? Why does no gospel mention them?
(3) What exactly does Paul mean by "appeared". Notice that he includes himself in that group of people that Jesus appeared to. But if we are to believe Acts, then Jesus appeared to Paul in a vision, not bodily. So is Paul saying that 500 people had a vision of Jesus? That is a possibility that cannot be ruled out.
(4) In fact that is a possibility (and I would argue, even a probability) that when Paul mentions "resurrection" all he is talking about a "spiritual" resurrection, not a bodily one.
So which is more likely ... a person lays dead for 3 days and then magically gets up, or 500 people have a vivid dream about a dead person talking to them? No living person has ever seen a dead person become undead. My sister-in-law had vivid dreams about her father coming to visit her after his death. She still thinks he did. Under any rational circumstances, the more likely explanation is the latter.
Cheers,
Darwin's Beagle
By the way, the reason that Rome didn't ask Paul to produce the witnesses was because Rome didn't know anything about Paul and probably didn't know anything about Christianity either. It was a small cult for a relatively long time.
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If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. - Anatole France
Rome did know about Paul they had him in house arrest for over a year and then finally had him put to death. All for his preaching.
If some on comes up with refutes that THEY believer nullifies my evidences why do they assume that Paul is a liar?
We cannot assume Paul was 100% honest. That would not make any sense.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
Not when he wrote about Jesus' resurrection. Acts is not clear as to the charges that Paul was brought up on. It just says that the Jewish leaders made many serious charges against him which they couldn't prove. Furthermore the story has many unbelievable elements to it. For instance, the attestations by Festus and King Agrippa that Paul did nothing to warrent punishment and that he could have been set free if only Paul hadn't appealed to the Emperor is not believable. It sounds too much like self-serving rhetoric.
What??
Cheers,
Darwin's Beagle
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If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. - Anatole France
This is just the same old "Christianity has survived until now, so it must be true," argument that we have heard again and again. You just put it in a slightly prettier package.
You would likely deny almost all the tenants of say, Buddhism, or Wicca, but they are still around. If anything these faiths are based on far fewer physical proofs than Christianity, yet they endure. Buddhism is still around because it SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA, and that idea gets passed down and passed down.
Just suck it up and admit that your religion is a faith, just like all the other faiths and CANNOT BE PROVEN. Believe, or don't, but you aren't going to convince anybody that just because your religion is still around that it is the truth.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."
If you would take an honest look you'd realize its a lot more than Christianity still exists so it must be true.
First off, huh? Also, any evidence you or I find proving or disproving Christianity is simply because we're LOOKING for the evidence. We've formulated a conclusion and are simply tying to piece bits of evidence together to make it look like we were right.
There are lots of religions that have been around WAY longer than Christianity. There are lots of religions that have been around for less time. Time is not proportional to truthiness.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
What I was talking about was that if you looked at my article you would realize its a lot more than Dr. Gonzo simplified it to.
No, not really. This blog was based on how some large amount of people claimed to have seen jesus, according to one apostle, after he died. When you take that along with the argument you posed previously, the "look at how long it's been around" argument, we find that Dr. Gonzo smashed the nail on the head.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
Its more like Christianity is true because so many people saw Jesus Christ rise from dead. You are simply misrepresenting what I wrote so that you can discredit it.
"If Paul makes the assertion that 500 people saw Jesus after he was dead and it was not true, then Christianity would not exist today."
"Christianity did not die because none of these things happened. Christians in that day had irrefutable evidence that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead."
That's you making the exact argument that I said you were making. Your own words equate the survival of a belief to that belief's veracity. That's wrong, pure and simple. As Nicholas said, "Time is not proportional to truthiness."
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."